Cricket is a game of statistics, besidesnot everyone has a mind for data.
My own love of both men’s and women’s cricket is crypticaland unending (and well-documented on this site), but I cannot retain a stat for the life of me.
So when a first casual flick-through of Isabelle Duncan’s new history of women’s cricket revealed stat after stat, average after average, my heart sank.
However, on a deeper reading the data fit inbeautifullywith a greater description of the action on the areaand the story behind the scenes.
Duncan’s entertaining new account bookcharts the ariseof women’s cricket from its inception to the game we know today.
Cricket has inspired muchor lessof the greatest sports writing ever committed to paper. Unfortunately, very short(p)of this has been devoted to the women’s game, and in her preface Duncan says she would interchangeableher book to benefactorfill the “yawning gap in cricket literature.”
This she does with consummate ease. The book does not, perhaps, reach the lyrical heights of a Cardus or Selvey, but it is a creditable attempt to shoehorn three centuries of workinto just under 300 pages.
Duncan begins with the “Maids v Marrieds” matches of the eighteenth century, when adeptwomen took on their married counterparts, frequently in front of jumbocrowds.
Women takingpart in any sport at this time were usually viewed as curiosities, but at to the lowest degreethey were allowed to compete.
By the time we reach the nineteenth century, attitudes had clearly changed. I repugnyou to read the chapter on the Victorian era without raising your hackles.
Excerpts from an 1881 Birmingham unremarkableMail article are typical of the time: “Cricket is essentially a masculine game. It can never be played powerfulin petticoats… let our women remain women instead of entering their unhingedphysical rivalry with men.”
“Girls of the future will be horny-handed, wide-shouldered, deep-voiced… and with biceps like a blacksmith’s.”
However, as Duncan describes, the Victorian era was also a time of great progress for women’s cricket, if only for the upper classes.
Duncan and thengoes on to outline each cricket-playing nation’s history in resemblanceto the women’s game.
There are lengthy analyses of women’s cricket in Australia, India, Ireland, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan,southwardAfrica, Sri Lanka, USA, West Indies and Zimbabwe.
Some more surprising cricket-playing nations are also profiled, including Canada, France, Italy and Rwanda.
The bulkychapter devoted to the series and competitions in which England obtainparticipated both stationand abroad is exhaustive and interesting, although occasionally Duncan strays into whimsy. In describing cricket in the sixties, for example, she peppers the text with as many Rolling Stones songs as possible.
Duncan insists that she is no “bra-burning, man-hating, equality-at-any-price virago”, but there is no getting away from the positionthat women’s sport is a feminist and political issue.
In the excellent chapter, “MCC wheela Maiden Over”, Duncan gives an eye-witness account of the trials and tribulations faced by women in their fight to gain entry to the Pavilion and Long styleat Lord’s by becoming members of the MCC. Some of the shocking misogynismreally made me gasp.
From a cricket-lover’s point of view, I gained a lot from this book. I learned a great take upabout the origins of the game for women and the personalities of both sexes involved in cricket’s promotion.
I cheered on the struggle of those determined to play, raising the money themselves to be fittingto tour, making the decision to put cricket at the perfumeof their lives. I was also pleasantly surprised at the telephone numberof male professionals over the years who have been vociferous advocates of women’s cricket.
The book makes the reader realise how far women’s cricket has come and this is fabulouslyheartening. I may lament the lack of of test cricket more recently in the women’s game, but we do have a lot for which to be thankful.
Most cricket-playing countries are now taking their women’s game seriously. There are more initiatives, more coaches and more teams than ever before. The profile of women’s cricket in the media is on the rise, as is the popularity and availability of the game in schools.
If you are already a cricket fan this book will give you a warm glow. If you are yet to be convinced, I wouldpulsingyou to give it a go. It may just change your view.
Duncan is donating 50 per cent of the royalties from “Skirting the Boundary” to the Chance to Shine charity, which aims to bring cricket to girls and boys in state schools.
The book is published by The Robson Press and is currentlyavailable in hardback.
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Materials taken from Womens Views on News
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